Bright Lights Draw White Stone Resident To Acting

WHITE STONE — The second balcony of The Washington National Theatre was an affordable way Karen Stanley as a child could watch great performances by stars such as Helen Hayes.

``Every Saturday afternoon I could, I would attend the matinee sitting up in the nosebleed seats, the cheap seats,'' says Stanley. ``I was in high school in Arlington but the theatre is where I spent what little money I had. It was a real treat.''

After high school, she went to work in the public relations department of Blue Cross-Blue Shield in Richmond where she met her husband, Tony.

The Stanleys left Atlanta in 1980 to move to White Stone where she started work as a secretary in the Dunton, Simmons and Dunton law firm.

Office coworker Ann Denitto took Stanley to an acting workshop and she was hooked. ``You do a one minute monologue. You stand up there on the stage and the lights hit you,'' says Stanley. ``You begin to think `I could really enjoy this.' Being on the stage is so much fun.''

The Players started its dinner theater in 1979. Before that the group did children's plays and puppets, but the group didn't have a place until 1979 when they rented a building in Northumberland County, now Lighthouse Academy.

The group was called the Lancaster/Northumberland Center for the Performing Arts. The players then moved to Steptoe's Ordinary in White Stone and served dinner and performed plays there until they bought the building on Route 3, one block from the stoplight in downtown White Stone in 1985.

``I started acting, then I was stage manager, did props, cooked in the kitchen, cleaned toilets, swept the floor, whatever needed to be done,'' says Stanley, now parliamentarian after having served as vice president then president of the board of directors.

She has also directed several productions and appeared as ``Wheezer,'' the Shirley MacLaine role in the movie version of ``Steel Magnolias.''

* Plans and tryouts are under way for the spring production, ``Barefoot in the Park.'' The Players hope to do Gilbert and Sullivan's ``Pirates of Penzance'' next.

* New members are welcome to volunteer time and talents. For more information, call, Lancaster Players, 435-3776.